Are You Audit Ready?
Are you Audit-Ready? Authors: Ki James and John Boyer When you first read the title of this article, you probably shuddered and immediately thought of your financial audit. Those may be scary, but what about compliance audits? Are you prepared for a...
Is There A Hole In Your Sox? (Compliance)
Analytics and Sarbanes-Oxley Managing SOX compliance with self-service BI tools like Qlik, Tableau and PowerBI Next year SOX will be old enough to buy beer in Texas. It was birthed out of the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act”,...
You “Musk” Return Back To Work – Are You Ready?
What Employers Need to do to Welcome Their Workers Back to the Office After nearly 2 years of working from home, some things just won’t be the same. In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, many businesses shut the doors on their brick-and-mortar and asked...
The Dream of a Single Analytics Tool is Dead!
The Dream of a Single Analytics Tool is Dead! There’s a persistent belief among business owners that an entire firm needs to operate on a single business intelligence tool, be it Cognos Analytics, Tableau, Power BI, Qlik, or anything else. This belief has...
Why Multiple BI Tools Matter
Why Multiple BI Tools Matter And the underlying challenges in making it work There are 20 vendors ranked in Gartner’s 2022 Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms. Over the past 10 or 15 years we’ve watched the pendulum swing as...
The Benefits of Sharing a Single Roof
Cognos Analytics and Planning Analytics Under the Same Roof IBM has just announced that Cognos Analytics and Planning Analytics are now under one roof. We have one question – What took them so long? There are a number of obvious benefits to integrating...
Feral Information Systems
They’re wild and they’re rampant! I previously wrote about shadow IT here. In that article we discuss its prevalence, its danger and how to manage it. I had no idea that Feral Information Systems (FIS) were a thing. Feral cats I had heard of. We actually...
12 Reasons for Failure In Analytics And Business Intelligence
12 Reasons for Failure In Analytics And Business Intelligence Number 9 may surprise you In analytics and business intelligence, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. We are, after all, looking for the single version of the truth. Whether it's a...
Shadow IT: Balancing The Risks And Benefits Every Organization Faces
Shadow IT: Balancing the Risks and Benefits Every Organization Faces Abstract Self-service reporting is the promised land of the day. Whether it's Tableau, Cognos Analytics, Qlik Sense, or another analytics tool, all vendors seem to be promoting...
10 Things The C-Suite Needs To Know About Analytics
10 Things the C-Suite Needs to Know about Analytics If you haven’t traveled much lately, here’s an executive summary of developments in the field of analytics that you might have missed in the airline seatback magazine. It’s not called Decision Support...
Motio’s Cloud Experience
What Your Company Can Learn From Motio’s Cloud Experience If your company is like Motio, you already have some data or applications in the cloud. Motio moved its first application to the cloud around 2008. Since that time, we’d added additional applications as...
What Does Watson Do?
Abstract IBM Cognos Analytics has been tattooed with the Watson name in version 11.2.1. His full name is now IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson 11.2.1, formerly known as IBM Cognos Analytics. But where exactly is this Watson and what does it do? In...
Exporting and Importing Security rules – Qlik Sense to Git
Exporting and Importing Security rules - Qlik Sense to Git This article is intended as a guide for those who are faced with the situation of figuring out who caused a disaster by editing the Security Rules in Qlik Sense and how to roll back to the last...
Cloud Prep
Preparing To Move To The Cloud We are now in the second decade of cloud adoption. As many as 92% of businesses are using cloud computing to some degree. The pandemic has been a recent driver for organizations to adopt cloud technologies. Successfully...
60-80% of Fortune 500 Companies will Adopt Amazon QuickSight by 2024
That’s a bold statement, sure, but in our analysis, QuickSight has all of the qualities to increase market penetration. QuickSight was introduced by Amazon in 2015 as an entrant in the business intelligence, analytics and visualization space. It first appeared in...
5 Reasons To Consider Dynamic Query Mode
5 Reasons To Consider Dynamic Query Mode While there are multiple incentives for Cognos Analytics users to convert from Compatible Query Mode to Dynamic Query Mode, here are our top 5 reasons we think you should consider DQM. Interested in...
7 Benefits Of The Cloud
7 Benefits Of The Cloud If you've been living off the grid, disconnected from the urban infrastructure, you may not have heard of the cloud thing. With a connected home, you can set up security cameras around the house and it will save motion-activated...
Fighting the COVID-19 Virus with Data
Disclaimer Don’t skip this paragraph. I hesitate to wade into these contentious, often political waters, but a thought came to me while I was walking my dog, Demic. I earned an M.D. and have been in some form of healthcare or consulting since. Over the...
Do You Know the Cognos Upgrade Best Practices?
Over the years Motio, Inc. has developed "Best Practices" surrounding a Cognos upgrade. We created these by conducting over 500 implementations and listening to what our customers had to say. If you are one of the more than 600 individuals who attended one of our...
Motio, Inc. Acquires Gitoqlok
Motio, Inc. Acquires Gitoqlok Bringing Together Strong Version Control Without Technical Complexities PLANO, Texas – 13 October 2021 - Motio, Inc., the software company that helps you sustain your analytics advantage by making your business intelligence and...
So You’ve Decided to Upgrade Cognos…Now What?
If you’re a long time Motio follower, you’ll know that we are no strangers to Cognos upgrades. (If you’re new to Motio, welcome! We’re happy to have you) We’ve been called the “Chip & Joanna Gains” of Cognos Upgrades. Okay that last sentence is an exaggeration,...
Virtual Cognos User Group – North Texas
When you hear the word, “Texas” what comes to mind? Maybe it’s ten-gallon hats, cowboy boots, barbeque, Cognos performance optimization! Okay, maybe your favorite BI tool isn’t top of mind, but it should be! For the first time ever, Motio is hosting a virtual North...
Cognos Performance Optimization Infographic
Let's cut to the chase. Cognos performance is something you probably don't think about until it's too late. We surveyed IBM Cognos Analytics users about their performance methodologies and compiled the findings into an infographic. Here's what we found:You don't...
Cognos Auditing Blog – Tips and Tricks for Large & High Volume Environments
A blog by John Boyer and Mike Norris. Introduction It is important to have the Cognos Auditing capability working to know and understand how Cognos is being used by your user community and help answer questions like: Who is using the system? What reports are they...
Baker Tilly Trusts Soterre with Audits
Financial Firm Built on Trust Baker Tilly is a leading advisory, tax, and assurance firm dedicated to building long-lasting relationships with its clients. Its mission is to protect its client’s value in an ever-changing world. The company emphasizes building trust...
Analytics in Retail: Is the Data Correct?
Retail is one of the top industries being transformed by AI and Analytics technology. Retail marketers need to involve segmentation, separation, and the profiling of diverse groups of consumers while keeping up with ever-evolving trends in fashion. Category...
Data Governance is not Protecting your Analytics!
In my prior blog I shared lessons around Modernization of Analytics, and I touched on the perils of not keeping end users happy. For Directors of Analytics, these people typically make up your biggest group of users. And when these users aren’t getting what they...
Modernizing Your Analytics Experience
In this blog post, we are honored to share the knowledge from guest author and analytics expert, Mike Norris, on planning and pitfalls to avoid for your analytics modernization initiative. When considering an analytics modernization initiative, there are several...
Qlik Luminary Life Episode 7 – Angelika Klidas
Below is a summary of the video interview with Angelika Klidas. Please watch the video to see the entire interview. Welcome to Qlik Luminary Life Episode 7! This week’s special guest is Angelika Klidas, Lecturer at The University of Applied Science in...
Motio Tightens its Long Partnership with IBM— OEM Partnership Agreement Announced
Motio software is now available for purchase directly from IBM’s portfolio of products. We are excited to share the news about an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement through which IBM will offer Motio software directly from IBM’s portfolio of products!...
Qlik Luminary Life Ep. 6 – Mike Capone, CEO Of Qlik
*Below is a summary of the video interview with Mike Capone. Please watch the video to see the entire interview. Hey readers, welcome back to Qlik Luminary Life! This is episode 6 and we have a very special surprise guest for you today…Mike Capone, CEO of...
From Excel to Qlik Sense: Our Analytics Journey in the Insurance Industry
In this special guest blog post, Chirag Shukla, a CITO in the insurance industry, will be our guide for all of the adventures, discoveries, and milestones his company encountered on their analytics journey. We’ll start with Excel and end at our final destination,...
Instant Replay for Cognos Troubleshooting
Instant replay has revolutionized the way we consume entertainment. Was his foot in bounds when he made that catch? Let’s timeout and consult the zoom lens! Wait, what did she say? Rewind and play that scene again! Did you really run a red light? Time to fire up...
Qlik Luminary Life Episode 5 – The Kelsey Fautsch Interview
Welcome back to Episode 5 of Qlik Luminary Life! This week we caught up with Kelsey Fautsch to learn more about her previous 12 years of experience at Deloitte (*spoiler alert* SHE’S AVAILABLE FOR HIRE so if you’re reading this and looking for an MVP for your team,...
Qlik Luminary Life Episode 4 – Juraj Mišina of EMARK Analytics
Episode 4 of Qlik Luminary Life is here! This week we had the opportunity to interview Juraj Mišina to learn more about what it’s like being a Senior BI Specialist at EMARK, one of the largest Qlik-exclusive consultancies in Central Europe, as well as a hobby...
Qlik Luminary Life Episode 3 – Kabir Rab of Tahola LTD And Co-Founder Of Kids In Data
Welcome to episode 3 of Qlik Luminary Life! This week we caught up with Kabir Rab, solution architect at Tahola LTD to learn more about his data literacy workshop for kids, his love for the sport of cricket, and his advice for those wanting to become a...
Qlik Luminary Life – An Interview With Nitesh Sethi, CEO Of CliqVenus
In this week’s episode of Qlik Luminary Life, we had the pleasure of speaking with Nitesh Sethi, CEO of CliqVenus Consulting and Services, and learned more about how Qlik has helped him land Fortune 500 and 100 clients, his experience as a 3x Qlik Luminary, and why...
Should I Stay or Should I Go – To Upgrade or Migrate your BI tool
As a small business, living in an app-based world, the number of applications we use has grown rapidly. This easily happens with cloud subscriptions and point solutions. We ended up with Hubspot for marketing, Zoho for sales, Kayako for support, Live chat, WebEx,...
Qlik Luminary Life – Joe Warbington of Vizlib
Here at Motio we’ve started a new blog and video interview series entitled Qlik Luminary Life. The purpose of this series is to highlight and showcase Qlik Luminaries, find out why they love Qlik and get to know them on a more personal level. For our first...
Data vs. Intuition- Why is everybody in BI Talking about it?
Last month, we discussed the benefits of self-service BI in our blog. One risk of self-service BI is that data is open to each individual’s interpretation, and therefore may be subject to opinion and bias. As our society becomes more reliant on data, where does...
Free Form Data Analysis vs. Data Governance and how it Correlates to a Japanese Delicacy
Standing before the screen, I carefully reviewed my options for udon. It was my first trip to Tokyo, and the lure of the wheat noodles was too strong. I made my lunch selection, grabbed a receipt marked in Japanese, and walked inside the noodle shop. I handed a...
A Deeper Dive into Qlik’s Statement of Direction: How Check In/Check Out Enhances Continuous Integration
Qlik Sense announced the addition of check in/ check out to their statement of direction, a huge step forward in applying Continuous Integration to your BI practice. At a technical level, Continuous Integration is the process that monitors the project’s source code...
Converting from CQM to DQM: A Cognos Customer’s Journey
Whether you’re considering moving to IBM Cognos Analytics on the Cloud, wanting to use JDBC drivers instead of a native database client, or just wanting greater visibility into performance-related characteristics of queries, adopting Dynamic Query Mode is a great...
Is Sensitive Data Secure at Your Organization? PII & PHI Compliance Testing
If your organization regularly handles sensitive data, you must implement data security compliance strategies to protect not only the individuals that the data belongs to but also your organization from violating any federal laws (e.g. HIPPA, GDPR, etc). This...
CQM to DQM – Why the Transition Isn’t as Hard as You Think
Transitioning from CQM to DQM. It’s a hot topic, and one we have yet to discuss. Not dissimilar to a Cognos upgrade, you are looking into switching to Dynamic Query Mode because it supports new database types, enhances performance, and is required for Cognos on the...
An Intuitive Clean Out: How Organizing Photos Relates to a Cognos Upgrade
I got a notification on my phone that my storage space was running dangerously low. This has happened before, and I was not looking forward to spending Saturday sorting through my phone and deleting stuff before I could use the camera feature again. So I clicked on...
We Answer Your Motio “In the Cognos Box” Questions
Unless you’re untouched by our marketing team (and really, why would you want that?) then you’ve heard of this “In the Cognos Box” announcement. And the more it’s promoted, the more questions come our way. We love the enthusiasm coming from our customers and...
Soterre Improves Visibility and Quality in Qlik Sense
Version control gave VTCT the freedom for data exploration in Qlik Sense. They no longer have to worry about creating new copies of each iteration of design.VTCT is a Qlik Data Intensive Company Vocational Training Charitable Trust (VTCT) is a specialist awarding...
Risk Administration Services Achieves Faster Data Delivery and Freedom to Innovate
Version control reveals exactly what changed, enabling RAS to easily identify when an error was introduced.The safety net of version control gave RAS the confidence to make courageous decisions.A Vision of Growth Risk Administration Services is a rapidly growing...
Locate and Mass Update Fonts in ALL your Cognos Reports, Quickly and Easily
Imagine your organization has decided to update their brand, and you’re tasked with updating the fonts on ALL company-wide reports that aren’t Arial or Helvetica with Arial. But how would you proceed to accomplish this herculean task? The average Cognos customer...
Using MotioCI “PDF Diff” To Accelerate The Cognos Upgrade Process
Locating errors in report outputs can be a difficult and complex task. It’s especially challenging if your Cognos system hosts a sea of reports! MotioCI can journey deep into your Development, Production, and QA environments to fish out error-filled report outputs....